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Ark Pioneer Learning at Home

Core Curriculum

English Literature 13 – Additional Support Booklet

Ancient Tales

Work to be completed

This booklet is designed as an alternative to the main English Department

booklet. We have now finished our poetry unit and we are starting a new

unit of work called Ancient Tales. This booklet explores a story from Ethiopia

and Eritrea called The Cheetah’s Whisker by Ghanaian

writer KP Kojo. Hi real name is Nii Ayikwei Parkes, but he

writes under the pseudonym KP Kojo.

Once you have completed the work in this booklet you

can return to the main English booklet and attempt the

other poems if you want to. One option would be to

attempt the ‘Do Nows’ on each story and enjoy reading

each story included.

Resources/Links to help with this work:

This is a link to the website of Nii Ayikwei Parkes, author of the ancient

tale we will be reading this week.

This is a link to Wikipedia’s page on Nii Ayikwei Parkes.

Use this link to Google Earth to find Ethiopia and Eritrea. This week’s

ancient tale The Cheetah’s Whisker is from these countries.

If you can’t access Google Earth try to find where in the world Ethiopia

and Eritrea are. You might be able to use this interactive map to do

some searching.

This is a link to Wikipedia’s page on the Habesha people – a term

describing Ethiopians and Eritreans.

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Do Now (Part 1)

What stories have you read this year? Which have you loved the most? Why?

Which stories have been the most powerful to you? Why?

Read the two information boxes below to get you thinking about Ancient

Tales and morals.

Information: Ancient Tales

Over the coming lessons, we are going to read a number of different stories

which are designed to teach us something.

These stories come under the heading Ancient Tales.

Ancient Tales are stories that have been shared by generations in cultures

across the world.

These particular stories tell us something about how to live.

The similarities in these stories suggest that humans have much more in

common than they do differences.

Information: morals

You may know the word moral. The definition is below.

A moral is a lesson that is learned from a story or an experience.

For example, the novel Oliver Twist shows us that it is possible to be a good

person, no matter what happens in your life.

Every Ancient Tale we read will teach us lessons, will contain morals. Part of

the purpose of Ancient Tales is to teach us these morals in a way that is

interesting and understandable.

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Do Now (Part 2)

Spend three or four minutes looking at these images to prepare you for

reading today’s ancient tale. Think about possible locations, characters, plot

and themes.

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Information: The Cheetah’s Whisker

You are going to read The Cheetah’s Whisker by KP Kojo. This story

originates in Ethiopia and Eritrea. If possible find someone who will read it

with you.

The story is about eight A4 pages long. It is broken into four sections with

questions for you to answer after each section. Always write in full

sentences, remembering capital letters and full stops. Take your time

reading it – you do not have to read it all at once.

Like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this story involves a magical potion.

This story is set in Fafen Shet, a village in Ethiopia.

In this lesson we are going to read the story and show our understanding by

answering questions.

Activity 1: Read the opening of the story and answer the questions below it.

Extension questions are optional.

The Cheetah’s Whisker, a Habesha story by KP Kojo Habesha – Eritrean

and Ethiopian

There once lived a girl called Abeba.

She lived close to a stream called Fafen

Shet, in a village that sat in the beautiful

savannah plains. Her home was in

Ethiopia, a country full of hills and rivers

and one of the first places in the world where people

farmed grain.

Abeba was the happiest girl you

could imagine. She spent her free time

playing tegre with friends and rode her

father’s shoulders while shouting,

‘donkey, donkey, donkey.’ When she

spotted her mother, Mariam, coming

home from work in the fields, she would run and skip around

her, asking questions all the way home. Her father, Taddese,

taught her how to write a kind of poetry called qəne, which

she liked to share with her parents while they had dinner.

Every day was wonderful for Abeba, except that

every now and then she yearned for a little brother or sister

to play with. She sometimes wrote qəne poems about how a

hand cannot make a loud sound without another hand to

clap against, to remind her parents that she was lonely.

They would laugh and say: ‘Be patient, child,

everything happens in its own time, in its own way.’

savannah plains –

grassy flat area with

few trees

tegre – a game

played with stones

and holes

qəne – a unique

style of poetry from

Ethiopia

yearned – really

wanted

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Mariam couldn’t tell Abeba that she was not strong

enough to have another baby. However, Abeba soon knew,

for after falling sick during a season of flooding, her mother

died.

Abeba became quiet and would no longer go out to

play tegre with her friends in the village anymore. When she

started playing again, she only played with her father.

Taddese became her best friend, her teacher, her cook, her

qəne reader and still, sometimes, her donkey – even though

by the time she turned nine she became a little heavy for

the donkey to carry. Then one day, Taddese told Abeba

that she would have a new mother, because he was

marrying a new wife.

‘I know you’ve been sad,’ he said. ‘I’ve also been sad and

lonely. Gelila is a kind woman, and I’m sure you’ll love her.’

Abeba made a face and said nothing.

‘She has two children as well,’ Taddese added. ‘A six-year

old girl called Elene and an eight-year old boy – Girma.

You’ll finally have playmates!’

But Abeba wasn’t very happy when Gelila moved in.

She had had her father to herself for more than two years,

and she wasn’t ready to share him. Besides, nobody could

replace her mother.

Although Gelila cooked much better than her father,

Abeba never ate much when she made meals and only ate

properly when her father cooked. She complained that

Gelila didn’t make specially shaped injera for her as her

mother had and put in too little salt when making dorowat –

her favourite chicken stew.

Abeba also hated her stepbrother, Girma, because he

opened her notebooks and read her qəne without asking

and he now played tegre with all her friends in the village.

She didn’t like sharing a room with two other children

anyway and she didn’t like that Elene got to wear all the

clothes that she could no longer wear because she had

grown too big.

She began to wander in the hills around the village

alone, thinking about ways in which her life could be better.

Abeba started to miss her mother all over again, even more

than she had before. She wrote and sang sad songs called

tizita:

Yesterday I danced a dream

but my arms today are broken

only memories hold me close

She dreamed of her mother, remembering what her soft,

brown skin smelt and felt like. She remembered how Mariam

used to burn frankincense at the weekends, singing while

injera – a type of

Ethiopian flatbread

tizita – a type of

Ethiopian song

written to

remember

someone

frankincense – a

type of incense

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washing clothes as her father looked over his students’ work.

How wonderful it was when she ruffled Abeba’s short curly

hair!

Comprehension questions (answer in full sentences)

1. Where does Abeba live?

2. What three things does Abeba like doing?

3. What does Abeba yearn for?

4. What happens to Abeba’s mother?

5. Why doesn’t Abeba like her new siblings?

Extension: How is the reader meant to feel towards Abeba?

Activity 2: Read the next section of the story and answer the

questions below it.

Gelila tried very hard to make Abeba feel special. She

asked her what she would like to eat on Saturdays when

they were all home together, she brought her little gifts from

the fields, she taught her songs that she had learned while

growing up, she offered to teach her how to draw portraits.

No matter what she did, Abeba remained quiet and didn’t

respond.

As soon as the holidays came, Abeba begged her

father to send her to her grandmother’s. She wanted to be

close to someone that reminded her of her mother, who

could tell her stories about her mother’s childhood –

someone who would understand how sad and lonely she

was.

At her grandmother’s, Abeba cried every day for two

days. Her grandmother tried to comfort her by cooking her

favourite dishes and taking her to visit cousins that she had

not seen for a while, but Abeba would not cheer up.

Eventually her grandmother called and asked her what was

wrong.

‘If you came here to be sad,’ said her grandmother, ‘then

you had better go back home. When I see my

grandchildren, I want them to be happy.’

‘Ayat, I’m sad and I’m lonely. My stepmother doesn’t love

me and now my father doesn’t have time to play with me

anymore. He’s always with Gelila’s children.

‘Abeba, your father will always have time for you. And how

do you know that your stepmother doesn’t love you?’

‘I am not her child. I can see it in the way she talks to them.

She doesn’t do anything special for me; she ignores me.’

‘Do you want her to love you?’ asked her grandmother.

Ayat – grandmother

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Abeba didn’t know what to say, because she had

never thought about it, but she wanted to feel special again

so she nodded.

Her grandmother looked at her for a long time, then

pulled her close to hug her. ‘I think I know what is needed.

This has not been done since my own grandmother was a

little girl, but I think it could work for you.’

Abeba sat up, curious. ‘What is it?’

‘Well,’ said her grandmother, smiling with her eyes just

like Mariam used to, ‘I can make you a love potion to give

to her.’

‘A love potion – that’s exactly what I need,’ said Abeba. She

stood up and clapped. ‘Yes, please.’

‘Not so fast,’ said her grandmother. ‘It’s a very complicated

potion to make, but I can do it. It’s just that there is one

ingredient that you would have to get for me.’

‘Anything, Ayat, I’m ready.’

‘OK. The thing that I need to finish off the potion is the

whisker of a cheetah.’

Abeba’s jaw dropped. There was no one in the world more

scared of cheetahs than Abeba. ‘A cheetah’s whisker?’

‘Yes,’ smiled her grandmother. ‘Do you think you can get

one?’

‘Of course,’ nodded Abeba, not wanting to give up. ‘I’ll go

out tomorrow morning and start searching.’

Comprehension questions (answer in full sentences)

1. How does Gelila try to make Abeba feel

special? Give at least two ways.

2. Abeba’s grandmother comes up with a solution to

Abeba’s problem. What is it?

3. What does Abeba need to get for her grandmother?

Extension: Are you surprised about Abeba’s grandmother’s

solution? Why? Why not?

Activity 3: Read the next section of the story and answer the

questions below it.

Abeba knew that the cheetahs of the savannah slept for

hours every day in shaded areas of high grass. When Abeba

had gone to the edge of her grandmother’s village to fetch

water, she had never travelled much further – except in the

direction of her own village. In every other direction, the

isolated clumps of thorn trees looked scary. However, she set

off the next day on her quest, knowing that she would have

curious – interested

cheetah – a large

slender spotted cat

found in Africa and

parts of Asia. It is the

fastest animal on

land.

Savannah – grassy

flat area with few

trees

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to go beyond all the paths she had known before, leaving

behind the comfort of knowing where she belonged.

There weren’t many places to hide in the open

savannah. The hollows of abandoned anthills provided

shelter here and there and sometimes there were caves.

However, other animals lived in most of the caves and it was

dangerous to intrude.

But Abeba was determined to have the love potion,

so she carried on. Past the dark red sands that marked the

edge of the village, past the stubborn clumps of low

elephant grass that seemed to survive regardless of the

weather, beyond the patchwork scatterings of spear grass

and into higher clusters of mixed beard grass and lovegrass.

The grass was as high as her waist and made a

pleasing, swishing sound as she walked through it. After a

while she heard a distinct trickle of a stream, so she climbed

a nearby tree to look for it. She couldn’t see the water itself,

but Abeba could tell from the richer green of the grass

towards the east, where she had to shade her eyes from the

early sun, that it was there.

As she prepared to get down from the tree, she saw a

movement in the grass close to the stream and waited. She

held her breath, her heart beating faster and faster, until she

saw the creature through the grass; its thick tail, its distinctive

markings; its smooth gait. It was a cheetah, a lone cat. She

watched it move away from the stream and stop under a

cloud-shaped bush. It stretched backwards then lay down

to sleep.

Abeba got down from her tree and walked towards

the cheetah. When she was close enough to hear the low

rumble of the cheetah’s breathing, she found another tree

and crept even closer to rest beneath it and watch the

sleeping animal.

Although she was scared, she felt close to the

cheetah because, like her, it was alone. She was fascinated

by the contrast between its white belly and the rest of its

coat, like a secret it carried.

Abeba watched the cheetah all day until it woke

again. It sniffed the air as though it sensed her presence. Its

whiskers twitched and it let out a low growl as it yawned,

tossing its head before it ambled back towards the stream.

Abeba returned to her grandmother’s, determined to return

the next day and get closer to the cheetah.

isolated – far away

from other places,

buildings or people

intrude – go to a

place where you

are not welcome

stubborn –

determined, difficult

distinct – clear

gait – walk

ambled – walked

slowly

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Comprehension questions (answer in full sentences)

1. Although Abeba is young, she has already

faced many challenges in her life. What are the

different challenges she is facing?

2. Through these challenges, Abeba is learning

about herself and the world. What is she learning? Extension: The savannah is both beautiful and scary. Find

one quotation to prove each idea. Form these quotations

into a paragraph which answers the question, What is the

savannah like?

Beautiful savannah quotation Scary Savannah quotation

Activity 4: Read the final section of the story. After reading the final section,

you will create a bullet point summary explaining how Abeba manages to

get the whisker from the cheetah.

While helping her grandmother cook the spicy beef

key-wat stew that evening, she thought about the cheetah’s

black tear marks that ran all the way down to the sides of its

moth, making it look sad and funny at the same time.

Abeba hummed a tizita, but with a smile on her face.

Yesterday I danced a dream

and if today my arms are gone

can my feet find a new rhythm?

She saved a large piece of raw meat from the key-wat to

take with her the next day.

Abeba was up and by the cheetah’s bush just after

sunrise. The light threw her shadow behind her as she crept

back to the tree she had found the day before to watch the

cheetah.

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The cat surveyed the horizon, now and then pausing

to sniff the air. Abeba was as still as an anthill and breathed

slowly through her mouth into her hands. She felt sure that

the cheetah sensed her presence and it seemed to pause

before settling down to sleep. When she was certain that it

was in a deep sleep, Abeba left her hiding place and tossed

the meat from the night before close to the sleeping animal.

When the cheetah woke up, it caught the scent of

meat and slunk towards it. It sniffed the meat cautiously,

then lifted it into its mouth in one swift movement. As it

chewed it sniffed the air, as if sensing Abeba’s presence

again, then made a soft growling noise before returning to

rest under its bush.

Abeba watched the cheetah as she did the day

before. She realized that she now found the sounds that the

cheetah made familiar. She could tell when a growl was

contented, when one indicated hunger or thirst. She could

guess from the tone of the purring that the big cat was

about to sleep. She waited until the cheetah went towards

the stream to drink and crept away for the day.

She returned the next day with more raw meat. This

time Abeba did not wait for the cheetah to fall asleep. She

stood up and tossed the meat towards the beast then

walked slowly to her hiding place. She watched as the

cheetah gobbled the meat and observed, stunned, as it

seemed to toss its head in her direction. She thought that

was its way of saying thank you. Yes, she said to herself, yes.

Abeba headed back to her grandmother’s with a skip in her

step. She zoomed past the high clusters of mixed beard

grass and lovegrass, the patchwork scatterings of spear

grass, the stubborn clumps of low elephant grass and the

dark red sands that marked the beginning of the village, to

help her grandmother chop up ingredients for the key-wat.

With the onion cooking in the niter kibbeh oil and her

grandmother grinding more spices to add, Abeba crushed

garlic cloves and paused to ask about the love potion.

‘Ayat, when you get the whisker, do you chop it or

grind it, or do you just boil it for flavour like you do with bones

for soup?’

Her grandmother brushed a handful of spices into the

pan over the nicely-browned onions and looked at Abeba,

a twinkle in her eyes. ‘Just get it first,’ she said. ‘Get it and I’ll

show you.’

‘OK.’ Abeba took a piece of meat and wrapped it in the

leaves for the next morning.

At the cheetah’s resting bush, the next morning, Abeba did

not retreat to her hiding place after she tossed food to the

cheetah. She crouched close by and watched it eat. She

niter kibbeh – an

important Ethiopian

ingredient made

with butter and

spices

retreat – pull back

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remained in the same position as the beast stared at her. It

purred and sniffed the air in her direction, as if making sure

that it was a scent it recognised, then turned to look across

the wide expanse of the savannah. After a while, the

cheetah growled softly and rose to go towards the stream.

Abeba returned daily with meat, moving closer to the

cheetah each time.

One morning, after a few weeks of her visits, she was

surprised to find the cheetah gone when she arrived. She

thought that it might have walked to the stream early, but

after a couple of minutes she heard a growl behind her.

Abeba realised that she was surprised but not scared. She

tossed the meat she had brought to the usual spot and the

cheetah slunk past her, brushing its thick tail against her arms

as it went to eat.

Feeling bold after her encounter, Abeba went to the

cloud-shaped tree a little earlier the next morning to spring

her own surprise on the cheetah.

She crept up behind the big cat and stroked it along the

thick patterned fur on its side. The cheetah purred, raised a

large front paw in the air for a second and growled.

Abeba placed the piece of meat she had brought in

front of the cheetah. As it ate, she reached out and pulled a

whisker from its face, tucking it into her little fabric pouch

that her mother had made for her when she was younger.

She stayed beside the cheetah as it stared across the

horizon and stood up with it when it rose to head to the

stream for a drink.

Abeba went in the opposite direction, a bit sad to be

leaving her new friend, but broke into an excited run as she

approached her grandmother’s home.

‘I have it! I have it!’ she screamed as she burst into the

kitchen. ‘I have the cheetah’s whisker. Now we can make

the potion.’

Her grandmother laughed and gave Abeba a big

hug.

‘Come and sit down, my child,’ she said, leading

Abeba to her bedroom.

‘Now, tell me, how did you manage to get a whisker from a

cheetah without getting bites or scratches?’ Abeba sighed.

‘I took my time. I watched it and tried to understand its

habits. I knew that it had to trust me and I needed to lose my

fear of cheetahs, so I was patient. I took it something to eat

every day and got closer to it each time. After a while, I

could tell it expected me. When I felt like it trusted me

bold – brave

encounter –

meeting

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completely, when I felt that I could call it my friend, I sat

down beside it while it ate and pulled out a whisker.’

‘That must have been very difficult for a girl like you;

you’re intelligent, but very, very impatient,’ said her

grandmother with a knowing smile.

‘Well,’ said Abeba, ‘I knew the whisker was important

to you, to help make the love potion. Can we make it now?’

Abeba’s grandmother looked her right in the eyes,

holding the girl’s face between her small, dark hands.

‘Abeba, you don’t need a potion. You were patient

with a cheetah because you knew it was important to me.

Now try and be patient and attentive with Gelila and Elene

and Girma because it’s important to your father. You’ll see

it’s a lot easier than making a love potion.’

Abeba nodded, tears welling up in her eyes.

Her grandmother wiped her tears. ‘And remember

that I don’t like to see you unhappy. It’s important to me and

your mother that you smile every day.’

attentive – giving

care and attention

Activity 5: Create a bullet point summary explaining how Abeba manages to

get the whisker from the cheetah. The first one has been done for you. Don’t

write more than four additional bullet points.

• Abeba starts leaving meat for the cheetah so it knows it can trust her.

Extension: Why is Abeba’s plan impressive? Were you surprised that Abeba

was able to come up with this plan? Were you surprised that the plan was

successful? Why?

Activity 6: Recap

1. What is an Ancient Tale?

2. What does the word ‘moral’ mean and why is it important to Ancient

Tales??

(Answers on p.2)

3. What do you think the moral, or morals of The Cheetah’s Whiskers are?

Try to give examples and quotations from the story if you can.

Hints – the following words and phrases might appear in your answer:

patience, building relationships, earning trust, courage, overcoming fear,

learning resilience.

For example:

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One moral from The Cheetah’s Whisker could be that it takes time

and patience to build a strong relationship. Abeba learns patience

when watching the behaviours of the cheetah ‘daily’ and ‘for weeks’

to work out how she will safely get close enough to it to be able to

pluck out a whisker from its face.

Red Pen Check your answers below:

Activity 1

1. Where does Abeba live?

Abeba lives close to a stream called Fafen Shet, a village in Ethiopia.

2. What three things does Abeba like doing?

Abeba likes playing tegre, riding on her father’s shoulders and

sharing qəne with her parents over dinner.

3. What does Abeba yearn for?

Abeba yearns for a sibling.

4. What happens to Abeba’s mother?

Abeba’s mother dies.

5. Why doesn’t Abeba like her new siblings?

Girma opens her notebooks and reads here qəne without asking. Elene gets

to wear the clothes that Abeba has grown out of.

Activity 2

1. How does Gelila try to make Abeba feel special? Give at least two ways.

Gelila tries to make Abeba feel special by asking her what she would like to

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eat, bringing her gifts, teaching her songs and offering to teach her how to

draw portraits.

2. Abeba’s grandmother comes up with a solution to Abeba’s problem. What

is it?

Abeba’s grandmother’s solution is to make a love potion.

3. What does Abeba need to get for her grandmother?

Abeba needs to get a cheetah’s whisker for her

grandmother.

Activity 3

1. Although Abeba is young, she has already faced many challenges in her

life. What are the different challenges she is facing?

Abeba’s life is challenging as she has had to cope with the death of her

mother. She is finding it challenging to accept the idea of a new mother

and siblings. Finally, although her grandmother loves her and is

sympathetic, she isn’t allowing Abeba to be miserable.

Instead, Abeba’s grandmother makes her do something challenging: get

a cheetah’s whisker!

2. Through these challenges, Abeba is learning about herself and the world.

What is she learning?

When Abeba’s grandmother asks her is she wants Gelila to love

her, Abeba says yes. She learns that she does want a relationship with

Gelila. When Abeba starts off on her quest, she learns that she is able to

survive in a landscape that is scary and that she doesn’t know well.

Activity 4 – Reading task

Activity 5

• She starts leaving meat for the cheetah so it knows it can trust her.

• She shows herself to the cheetah, allowing it to get used to her over a

number of weeks.

• Eventually, she creeps up behind the cheetah and strokes it.

• She places meat in front of the cheetah and, whilst it eats the meat,

she plucks a whisker from it.

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Activity 6

Recap

1 What is an Ancient Tale?

An Ancient Tale is a story that has been passed down by generations in

cultures across the world.

2 What does the word moral mean and why is the word moral important

to this unit?

A moral is a lesson that you can learn from a story or an experience.

The word moral is important to this unit because each of the Ancient

Tales you will read will teach you something, will contain a moral.

3 What do you think the moral, or morals of The Cheetah’s Whiskers are?

Try to give examples and quotations from the story if you can.

Other examples might include something along these lines. You may

have come up with other morals as well:

A sound relationship is built on trust which takes time to build. We see

this when Abeba proves to the cheetah every day for many weeks

that it can trust her to provide it with food without harming it.

We often need to overcome our own fears in order to build strong

relationships. We see this when Abeba overcomes her own fear of

travelling beyond the outskirts of her grandmother’s village and

approaching a cheetach – a wild animal of whom she is rightly

terrified.